Research Activities

Research Projects

FY 2016/2017 Research Topic: C-24
Impact of Political Protests: A case study on Bangladesh

Outline

Political protests in the form of strikes, locally known as hartals, remain quite common in the former Indian subcontinent countries. These protests are associated with a mass movement intended to cause a total shutdown of economic activities and closure of educational institutes, and they often result in coercion, violence, and damage to public and private property. Hartals were instrumental in strengthening the democratic progress in the sub-continent during and after the anti-colonial struggles. However, even long after the post-colonial periods have ended and democracy has been restored, hartals remain a prominent part of the political culture in this part of the world. Along with Bangladesh, both India and Nepal still face a concerning number of hartals on a yearly basis, and their occurrence has risen quite sharply over the years (Rudolph and Rudolph 1987). In this study, we will utilize micro and macro-economic frameworks and employ primary and secondary sources of data to systematically study the impact of this form of political protest in Bangladesh.

Period

April 2016 - March 2018

Members of the Research Project
[ Organizer ] SHONCHOY Abu
[ Co-researchers ] TSUBOTA Kenmei
[ Co-researchers ] IQBAL, Kazi (Research fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies)
[ Co-researchers ] HOQUE, Mohammad Mainul (Research Associate, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies)
Publications
  • First year: Interim Report
  • Second year: IDE Research Bulletin